Young Voices
My Life: Thines Ganeshamoorthy, 18, London
I have a rare condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, so I’ve had to travel from hospital to hospital all my life. I use specialist services and over the years I’ve seen improvements, but there are still some problems. My care would be so much better if there was better...
My Life: Benjamin Lloyd Hunter, 13, Llantwit Major
By the time I was seven years old, I was really worried as I couldn’t read or write.
My Life: Nancy Hammond, 15, London
I have been going to Westminster House Youth Club (WHYC) in Nunhead, south London, since I was eight and my dad used to go there when he was a boy. WHYC is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
My Life: Shannen Ellis, 16, Lancashire
I recently celebrated my graduation from the National Citizenship Service. It’s a programme that brings people together from lots of different backgrounds to do outdoor activities and work on community projects.
My Life: Leah Bostock, 16, Derby
They say if you enjoy things, then you always do them better. Well, I didn’t enjoy certain lessons at school and so it’s no surprise I didn’t pass those subjects.
Putting the fire behind early intervention
Phil Neal , 10 May 2013
Pinching yourself about poverty
PJ White , 09 May 2013
Protect children from forced destitution
Matthew Reed , 26 Apr 2013
Ravi Chandiramani
Youth work and schools make strange bedfellows. The very essence of youth work as voluntary and non-formal is certainly at odds with the formal, compulsory nature of school.
The high-profile cases of children in residential care going missing and being sexually exploited in the past year have sent shockwaves through our society. Last week, the government responded by announcing some important reforms.
Seventeen-year-old Paris Brown quit as the country’s first youth crime commissioner in Kent just days after her appointment for posting offensive tweets in her younger days. Her posts were stupid and naïve at the very least, but how many people’s adolescence, past and...
The government’s belated publication of revised child protection guidance produced one surprising move.
More Ravi Chandiramani
Bryan Merton
If you take the head off, the rest of the organism will fail. There sits the central nervous system, the main sensory faculties without which the body cannot function. Incidentally, you also deprive the creature of memory, in humans a vital function if we are to learn the...
Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Exploitation in Young People
Daily roundup: Age disputes, exercise, and parenting advice
Hundreds of claims against council over age disputes, children exercising less, and tips for parents on getting children prepared for school, all in today’s news.
John Freeman
Recent events surrounding the Leeds General Infirmary paediatric heart unit conjure up feelings bordering disbelief.
It has always struck me as odd that so many reforms are implemented on 1 April – All Fools’ Day.
There has been plenty of pre-Budget rhetoric thrown around about welfare and benefits spending from all sides. When the Budget is announced on 20 March, we will know which way the Chancellor jumped.
More John Freeman
Shaks Ghosh
Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Exploitation in Young People
Daily roundup: Age disputes, exercise, and parenting advice
Hundreds of claims against council over age disputes, children exercising less, and tips for parents on getting children prepared for school, all in today’s news.
Minister announces foster care support for councils
A new package of support to help local authorities attract and retain foster carers has been unveiled by the government.
Anne Longfield
Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Exploitation in Young People
Daily roundup: Age disputes, exercise, and parenting advice
Hundreds of claims against council over age disputes, children exercising less, and tips for parents on getting children prepared for school, all in today’s news.
Minister announces foster care support for councils
A new package of support to help local authorities attract and retain foster carers has been unveiled by the government.
Heath Monk
Today, a 14-year-old child from the poorest background will be, on average, two years academically behind their peers from the most affluent areas - and the figures don't stop there. Around seven out of 10 of the poorest children still leave school without good GCSEs, and...
Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Exploitation in Young People
Daily roundup: Age disputes, exercise, and parenting advice
Hundreds of claims against council over age disputes, children exercising less, and tips for parents on getting children prepared for school, all in today’s news.
Howard Williamson
I have been sceptical about the ideas behind establishing an Institute for Youth Work. But now it has been announced that the institute will be launched in the autumn, I wish it well.
Howard Williamson on the relationship between youth work and formal education
In very different times, Dolores Ibárruri, the leader of the Communist Party in the Spanish Civil War, observed that it was perhaps “better to die on our feet than live on our knees”. Open youth work in England is certainly already on its knees.
More Howard Williamson
Sir Paul Ennals
This month, shuttling between the north-east and the south-east of England, I have been struck by some of the massive variations in the experiences of children and young people in different parts of the country, and how this impacts upon national debates about future policy....
What should we make of the government’s recent consultation on how to measure the numbers of children living in poverty? Is it a genuine attempt to become more sophisticated at understanding the complexities of child poverty? Or is it a means of disguising how the numbers...
What is happening to the government’s plans to transform special educational needs provision?
More Sir Paul Ennals
Chris Hanvey
The reverberations from the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal will be long felt. This has proved to be not just another failing A&E department or set of wards with unacceptable levels of infection, but a profound crisis of culture at every level of the NHS, in which hundreds...
Gobal comparisons are sometimes useful in understanding local circumstances. Two recent events at the Royal College of Paediatrics brought home the lesson that a wider perspective often illuminates the domestic.
A cold night, several years ago, saw the southern rail network brought to a complete standstill. At the busiest junction of local commuter and Intercity trains, the signalling system failed totally.
More Chris Hanvey
Lisa Nandy
Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Exploitation in Young People
Daily roundup: Age disputes, exercise, and parenting advice
Hundreds of claims against council over age disputes, children exercising less, and tips for parents on getting children prepared for school, all in today’s news.
Minister announces foster care support for councils
A new package of support to help local authorities attract and retain foster carers has been unveiled by the government.
Denise Burke
Harmful Sexual Behaviour and Sexual Exploitation in Young People
Daily roundup: Age disputes, exercise, and parenting advice
Hundreds of claims against council over age disputes, children exercising less, and tips for parents on getting children prepared for school, all in today’s news.
Minister announces foster care support for councils
A new package of support to help local authorities attract and retain foster carers has been unveiled by the government.